Rest
by WinterSky101
Summary: Zuko isn't sleeping. Mai seeks him out. Mai/Zuko. Post-series.


Mai finds Zuko in his office, sitting cross-legged on the floor with papers strewn all around him. "Hey," she calls softly, walking over to him carefully, so she doesn't step on any of the papers. "What's wrong with the desk?"

"It's too small," Zuko replies, raking a hand through his hair. He rubs at his unscarred eye, then shifts a few pages around. He looks, Mai realizes when she comes closer, absolutely awful. There are bags under his eyes, and crisp white bandages peek out from under his robe.

"Did you sleep at all last night?"

"Couldn't," Zuko replies shortly. "So I thought I'd come in here and work."

"You've been working nonstop since you were crowned the Fire Lord."

Zuko laughs bitterly. "And I'm not even close to done," he replies. "Look at this." He shifts around a stack of papers and pulls one out, handing it to Mai. "That's the state of our budget right now."

Mai doesn't know all that much about economics, but she has to admit it doesn't look good. "Almost all of our money is going to the army," Zuko says. "Nothing's going to schools, or hospitals, or anything that's not related to the war. I have to restructure it, but I also have to factor in the reparations I need to give to the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes." He rubs his eye again. "I just wish I could do something about the Air Nomads too, but… The only thing I could do is give money to Aang, I guess, but he probably wouldn't take it."

"Zuko," Mai begins, but Zuko doesn't even seem to hear her.

"And there's still the colonies to deal with," he says, pulling out another piece of paper. "We have so many in the Earth Kingdom, and all those people will have to be brought back here and given places to stay, and I'll probably need to pay even _more_ reparations to the Earth Kingdom people who were kicked out of their homes when the colonies were established-"

"Zuko-"

"-And then there's…" Zuko begins looking for a paper, growing more and more frustrated when he can't find it. "I know it was right here," he hisses, shoving papers aside to look at the sheets under them. "It was _right here_ -"

"Zuko." Mai kneels down and takes Zuko's hands in hers. "You can't do this all on your own."

Zuko blinks up at her. "What?"

"You can't do all of this on your own," Mai repeats. "There are people who want to help you with this, Zuko. You could ask your uncle-"

"He's back in Ba Sing Se, with his tea shop," Zuko interrupts immediately. "I don't want to disturb him."

"Or you could ask the Avatar-"

"Aang has more important things to do than help me restructure a budget."

"Then I can help you," Mai offers. She reaches for Zuko and cups his cheek with one hand. "You need to take better care of yourself, Zuko. Let me help."

Zuko looks up at her for a moment, then sighs and leans into her touch, his gaze turning downwards. "There's just so much to do."

"I know. But sitting here all night isn't going to help anything. You need sleep. Go to bed, Zuko."

"I have a meeting," Zuko protests. "With General…" He rubs at his eye again. "I can't remember his name. The big angry one." He huffs out a somewhat pathetic attempt at a laugh. "I guess that describes a lot of them."

"I'll deal with it," Mai says. "We can postpone the meeting."

"And Aang is coming over later, to start talking about reparations," Zuko adds.

"Aang would want you to get your rest."

"Mai-"

"Zuko." Mai tilts Zuko's head up so he has no choice but to look at her. "You need rest. You look exhausted. Even the Fire Lord needs to sleep sometimes."

"But-"

"I'm not taking no as an answer, Zuko."

Zuko offers Mai a small smile. "You know, I _am_ your Fire Lord."

"And I'm your girlfriend, and I'm not letting you burn yourself out like this," Mai replies. "Come on. I'll get someone to clean up this mess."

"Leave it," Zuko counters. "I'll clean it up later. I need to look through everything and sort it properly anyway."

" _After_ you get some sleep."

Zuko sighs. "Yes, after I get some sleep."

Mai pulls Zuko to his feet. He allows her to drag him to his room, more docile than Zuko normally ever is, and doesn't protest as she pulls off his robe and gently pushes him into the bed. He doesn't even say a word until Mai turns to leave.

"Can you stay?"

Mai turns back. Zuko is clearly minutes away from falling asleep, barely able to keep his eyes open. He looks younger like this - or, maybe, he looks his age. Sometimes, it's hard to remember that he's only sixteen. Sometimes, it's hard to remember that Mai herself is only fifteen. The war made adults out of all of them too quickly.

"Sure," Mai agrees, even though she slept through the night and isn't tired in the least. She crawls into the bed, sitting at the head of it. Zuko rests his head in her lap. Mai runs her fingers through his hair.

It doesn't take long for his breaths to even out into a slow, easy rhythm. Mai lets her fingers go still as she watches him sleep.

For a while, at least - for as long as she can keep the demands of the world at bay - Zuko can get some rest.


End file.
